.224 J4 Jacket Bullet Weights

[Hammer]

Thought this might be helpful info for the new .224 swagers:

I called the Berger folks to find out the recommended weight ranges for the various length J4 Jacket offerings and they provided me with the following info:

.224 - .600 length - 30, 35, and 40 gr bullets
.224 - .705 length - 50 and 52 grain bullets
.224 - .740 length - 55 grain bullets
.224 - .800 length - 60, 62 and 64 grain bullets
.224 - .930 length - 70 and 73 grain bullets
.224 - 1.000 length - 75 grain bullets
.224 - 1.060 length - 80 grain bullets
.224 - 1.125 length - 90 grain bullets

Hopefully, this will get me (us) in the ball park when I (we) need to order jackets. I'm sure there are options to buying every size and more than one length can be adapted to different weight boolits - i.e. lead tip and hollow point....

Over to the experts for commentary....

[martin]

Hammer,

Great information and thank you for sharing it.

I have used .600's for 45 grainers as well. I have also used .705's for 55 grainers but it pretty much fills up the ogive on an open tipped bullet.

I am presuming that you got this information because you were either getting ready to order some J4's or that you were ordering some. You would't happen to know their lead time? The last I checked it was about 8 weeks and they had quite a backlog when I was trying to get
6mm jackets.

Thank you and Best Regards,
Martin

[MIBULLETS]

martin, from my experience with J4, you never know on the lead time until you call. Most of the time they have them on the shelf, unless you want .243 or .308 I think. If they don't have them in-stock, then you wait until they come back to that caliber. They work in a kind of rotation on the different calibers.

[Hammer]

Happy to oblige...

Might try Brunos Shooter Supply.

I did not ask for lead time - still collecting info.

[Utah Shooter]

They sell jacket for HP's that can be 70 gr HP's? That I could do.

[martin]

Hammer,

I called Bruno's last week and they said they were out of 6mm jackets. They expected an order delivery sometime next month but it really depends on when Berger ships them. They said to call back next month.

Bruno's lists a lot of jackets in their price list but only stocks a few popular jackets like 22 .705's and 6mm .825's.

Martin

[Hammer]

Martin,

Thanks, that is good to know.

I have never gotten that far into the conversation with the Bruno folks. I also found out there is a longer version at 1.125" that is not on Bruno's price list.

I guess there is more than one "highly desirable vendor" with long "wait list" times.....

I do know .224 anything has been in scarce supply as a result of the high demand in the Middle East AOR.

Guess we will just have to plan a little farther out to get the good stuff and use the rimfire as a substitute until we can get the J4's.... Longer bullets for faster twists may be a small problem.

Ed

[Grandpas50AE]

Hammer,
I use the .705" J-4 jackets to make a really nice 69.5 gr. 6-S spitzer. I bond the cores for the ones I want to shoot for hunting, but have gotten some really great results without bonding for the paper targets. It produces a really nice lead-tip bullet, which is extremely accurate. The bonded-cores I produced produced 2 deer with 2 shots by my wife (I think she's a better shot than I at this point). This may be an interesting experiment for you.